|
I have said all along that it seemed like the Arizona DPS was framing Leslie Merritt Jr. so they can brag to the public that they are superheroes like Batman and Robin and deserve pay raises.
Looks like I was right. Even Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was part of that insanity when he tweeted something like "We got him", hoping to look like a Super Government because of the false arrest his DPS thugs made of Leslie Merritt Jr. Oddly the government is admitting they f*cked up royal in this case. Usually the cops and prosecutors refuse to admit when they f*ck up and either bankrupt innocent people or send the innocent people to prison.
State moves to drop charges against Phoenix freeway shooting suspect Kathy Tulumello and Robert Anglen, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:27 p.m. MST April 22, 2016 Prosecutors have moved to drop charges against Leslie Merritt Jr., the man accused in a string of freeway shootings that shook the Phoenix area last summer. The motion to dismiss charges was filed late Friday by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The motion was made without prejudice, which means that a new case could be brought in the future. The case against the 21-year-old landscaper, who had spent seven months in jail before being released Tuesday, has unraveled in recent weeks as doubts have been raised about ballistics evidence and the shooting timeline. Jerry Cobb, spokesman for Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, said the state's ballistics expert, Lucien Haag, had raised questions about the evidence. "These developments have nothing to do with what the defense uncovered but have everything to do with what evidence prosecutors uncovered," Cobb said Friday night. He said prosecutors received additional information about 4 p.m. Friday that caused the office to file the motion with the court. "We have an ethical and professional obligation to act in the interest of justice and not merely to seek a conviction," Cobb said. Cobb said an active investigation into the freeway shootings was continuing. The County Attorney's Office was working with the Arizona Department of Public Safety to collect additional forensic information in the case, he said. "Dismissing the charges without prejudice will provide us with the time needed in order to prepare the case for a possible refiling of charges," he said. Based on the outcome of the investigation, he said, the County Attorney's Office would refile charges, file additional charges — or decline to file charges. Merritt was released from jail Tuesday after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville reduced his bond to zero from $150,000 and required him to wear an ankle monitor. Granville's ruling came in response to a sealed motion filed by Merritt's defense attorneys. The motion was based in part on Haag's ballistics review, which called into question some of the evidence tying Merritt to the shootings. "There’s no evidence against him," defense attorney Jason Lamm told Granville at the hearing. “He’s no more the I-10 shooter than you are." Contacted Friday, Lamm declined further comment. "We are actually on a gag order until the judge officially announces it," he said. The next status hearing in the case was scheduled for May 18. Lamm was expected to request a court hearing early next week for Granville to rule on the prosecutor's motion to dismiss charges. There have been no other arrests tied to the shootings. Merritt had faced 15 charges, including drive-by shooting and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Leslie Merritt Sr. said Friday that his son was “elated” by the decision, but the family still was under a judge’s order not to talk about the case. “I was actually on the phone with my son when he told me it just happened. He was elated,” the elder Merritt said in a phone interview from Wyoming. “I don’t know that anything has changed until such time that the judge rules on it.” Attorneys for the younger Merritt have filed a $10 million wrongful-arrest claim against the state, which contends Merritt’s treatment was in response to “intense political and financial pressure.” Moments after the arrest, Gov. Doug Ducey posted “We got him” on the social-media platform Twitter, raising allegations of a rush to judgment. Asked about the tweet after Merritt's bond was eliminated this week, Ducey told reporters that he was concerned about public safety. “When you go back seven months ago, this was all anyone was asking me about. We had three weeks where there were random shootings happening on our freeways. Then the random shootings have stopped. My concern is still about public safety. This case is in the courts and I’m going to let the judicial branch do their job and I’m certain we’ll get a fair result. "We’re going to let the process play out. We have a process, we have a system and that’s what’s working right now.” On Friday, Ducey's spokesman Daniel Scarpinato reiterated that stance. "The issue is working its way through the criminal justice system, where it remains under investigation by state and county authorities. We expect the case to be treated fairly." Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and other DPS representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier this week, a DPS spokesman said the agency was standing by its investigation. Key players in the case are under a judge's gag order, and many documents in the case remain under seal. But Haag's sealed report appeared to be one of the biggest blows because it challenged ballistics evidence that served as the crux of the state’s case. On Sept. 18, the night Merritt was arrested, Milstead told reporters that Merritt was tied to the first four freeway shootings because the weapon he owned was involved in the shootings. Investigators later said that bullets and bullet fragments were forensically linked to a gun that Merritt had recently pawned. In court Tuesday, Lamm said, "The state’s own expert now says that the identification or match that DPS made does not exist.” Another challenge with the case against Merritt: DPS documents released last month showed how Merritt's gun was under lock and key at a pawn shop by the evening of Aug. 30, when one of the victims first noticed a faulty tire. A bullet later was found inside of it. DPS officials said the shooting had gone unnoticed for a while because it was a "run-flat" tire, explaining that its durability would make it possible for the shooting to have occurred days earlier. They adjusted their timeline accordingly, saying that what was believed to be the last shooting, on Aug. 30, actually was the first, occurring on Aug. 27. However, the victim said he was sure he had no issues with his tire when he parked it at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Aug. 27. And a service technician said the car's pressure warning would have activated “within a mile” of where the puncture occurred. At the peak of the freeway-shootings investigation, DPS officials had counted at least 11 separate incidents. The agency tied four to Merritt, but the other seven remain open or under investigation, a DPS spokesman said earlier this week. Republic reporters Megan Cassidy, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Lindsey Collom and Bailey Netsch contributed to this article. More articles about how Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is framing Leslie Allen Merritt Jr.
|